The mother of a Colchester teen killed in a car wreck insists that the boy’s father — the driver of the vehicle — wasn’t drunk.

Robin McLennan testified in court on Friday that her ex-husband David McLennan showed no signs of impairment when she saw him at the scene and in the hospital after the fatal crash.

“He was crying. We were both crying,” Robin McLennan said on the witness stand at the Superior Court of Justice.

“I would not be here if there was any signs of alcohol,” she said. “I would know. I spent my whole entire adult life (with him). Even my teenage years. I would know.”

On the night of July 24, 2008, at a bend on Creek Road, David McLennan crashed and rolled his 1970 Ford Mustang, killing his 16-year-old son Dylyn.

Friday’s trial date comprised of witnesses in defence of David, who is accused of impaired driving causing death and dangerous driving causing death.

Robin said she met David in the 1970s, and their first date was in a Ford Mustang. They were married for 29 years before their separation in 2011.

In her emotional testimony, Robin said the death of Dylyn put her on a mission to change Creek Road — lobbying Amherstburg’s town council for the chevrons and warning signs that stand at the bend today.

But the jury also heard testimony from Daniel DeJonge, a neighbour and friend of the family, who was in the passenger seat at the time of the accident.

DeJonge admitted on the stand that he was drinking that night, and had brought two beers into the vehicle. “I was offering it. One for me, one for Dave.”

According to DeJonge, David refused.

However, David later partook of two beers and a tequila shot at Shooter’s Roadhouse, and he was also seen opening and sipping from a beer at the Laird Avenue home where they picked up Dylyn.

DeJonge also admitted that on three occasions that night, David attempted tire-burning moves with the muscle car — once in the parking lot at Shooter’s, again as they left Laird Avenue, and once more as they proceeded to Creek Road.

“David tried to show off a little with the car,” DeJonge testified.

DeJonge said the maneuver on Laird Avenue “didn’t go so well,” and the car went onto the shoulder of the road.

But DeJonge insisted that David drove “in a controlled manner” and the speed did not seem excessive.

“Everything was fine,” DeJonge said.

“(David) had that car a long time. He knew how to drive it. I trusted him that day. I still trust him.”

Assistant Crown attorney Tom Meehan questioned DeJonge on how David’s driving could be considered “controlled” with the fishtail incidents and the crash that took Dylyn’s life.

Meehan also questioned DeJonge’s memory loss.

Witnesses for the prosecution have testified that DeJonge was not co-operative at the accident scene or at the hospital, and that he’d warned David about “the cops” and advised him to “keep your mouth shut.”

But DeJonge said on the witness stand that he can’t remember what happened from the instant of the crash to the point when he was being loaded into an ambulance. He said he was “agitated” and “confused” at the hospital.

“I don’t recall,” DeJonge repeatedly replied to Meehan’s questions.

The court heard that DeJonge suffered a torn knee ligament, a damaged shoulder and a large laceration on his head in the rollover.

DeJonge said his head had impacted the car’s windshield.

But Meehan noted there is no medical record of DeJonge having a concussion.

Robin McLennan and other defence witnesses testified that DeJonge did not seem himself immediately after the accident.

“He was out of it,” said Barb DeJonge, Daniel’s wife. “He was just acting crazy, not making sense.”

Meehan pointed out that Daniel DeJonge has never given police a statement on the accident.

He noted that a police officer testified DeJonge did not respond to phone calls.

He said DeJonge’s testimony on Friday was the first time the Crown had heard about DeJonge’s memory loss.

“If you had evidence that Mr. McLennan is innocent, why did you withhold it for five years?” Meehan asked. “Why did you let (David) face these charges for so long?”

Colleen Eve tearfully recalled the mother she barely knew.
She was only three back in 2000 when her father John told her mother, Chatham-Kent OPP Sgt Marg Eve would not be coming home. Eve was critically injured when a truck smashed into three cruisers parked by the side of the road after stopping a suspect vehicle.